Page 957 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 April 1994
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MR HUMPHRIES (5.09), by leave: I move:
b. Page 15, lines 10 to 13, proposed new subsection 55(2), omit the subsection, substitute the following subsection:
"(2) The Commissioner shall, on request and on payment of the determined fee, supply a printed extract from a roll to a person, unless the Commissioner believes on reasonable grounds that the extract would be used otherwise than for an approved purpose within the meaning of section 57."
c. Page 15, lines 19 to 22, proposed new subsection 56(2), omit the subsection, substitute the following subsection:
"(2) The Commissioner shall, on request and on payment of the determined fee, so far as practicable, supply a roll extract in electronic form, or on microfiche, to a person, unless the Commissioner believes on reasonable grounds that the extract would be used otherwise than for an approved purpose within the meaning of section 57.".
Madam Speaker, there are, I submit, two defects in proposed new sections 55 and 56 of the Bill, and they relate to access to printed roll extracts and to electronic roll extracts. Obviously, access to roll extracts is a very important part of the task of fighting an electoral campaign or seeking election to this place. It is very important that candidates be able to contact members of the electorate. That is fairly obvious. Members need to be able to campaign in a way which will exploit knowledge of who those members of the electorate might be, and it is valuable to have that kind of information made available.
The question is: In what circumstances should it be made available? Proposed new section 57 makes it clear that offences are committed by using roll extracts for unapproved purposes. Clearly, the intention is that the roll extract be used strictly for election related purposes. However, the drafting of proposed new sections 55 and 56 makes it clear that there are two problems. One is that the commissioner has a discretion as to whether to supply roll extracts to persons other than MLAs and registered officers of political parties. The second problem is that the onus, in a sense, falls on the person seeking the extract to show that they are entitled to the use of that extract for some approved purpose as described in proposed new section 57.
In respect of the first matter, it is quite clear from reading this Bill that there are a great many examples of the Government's belief that elections are about parties fighting each other and winning elections, or losing, and not about individual candidates. In this sense existing MLAs and the registered officers of political parties have considerably greater rights of access to this information, to electoral roll extracts, than do other candidates. That, Madam Speaker, seems to me to be anomalous and undesirable, and we should do something about it. My amendments go some way towards doing that. First of all, they remove the absolute discretion in the commissioner, which appears to exist in these two
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